Category: Other

Countless times in the news, especially in recent years, we hear about countless tragic celebrity deaths. Yes, it is quite the tragedy which is countlessly portrayed by many of the major media networks. However, the fashion in which it is reported is subjectively classless, especially when considering the “credibility” of said news networks.

As seen in the picture above, the New York Times had put out an article titled, “Chris Cornell, Soundgarden and Audioslave Frontman, Dies at 52.” Seems harmless enough to a numbed society to this type of celebrity death. However, I take great issue with this and the network’s inability to take advertisements away from the article. Maybe its just me being overly offended by something like this, but if I were to die, I would like to know that I wasn’t being made into the next money-making story. And, obviously, this would change if ad revenue made on the story was donated to my loved ones. However, nowhere in the NY Times article do I see a disclaimer supporting this (if I am wrong about this, please let me know because I don’t want to be right). It is a real shame that in a society with unprecedented media distrust that this type of thing goes unquestioned.

I do not want to make this solely about the Times because if the NY Times is doing this, then I can guarantee that other major news outlets are on their coattails. Without any research I could definitively say this. And this exists in all forms of news. On the television, for example, the network won’t postpone advertisements when announcing the deaths of any person, celebrity or not. And my main point isn’t that reporters should be barred payment for writing these articles. My goal in writing this is to shed light on an issue that has been vastly, and wrongly, numbed to society.

I, for one, am completely supporting of technical advancements to help us in our daily lives. Whether it be through artificial limbs, robots, or self-driving cars, advancements in technology can only improve a person’s way of living. But I think the rate at which we are advancing in concerning.

The economy we currently experience in America is acceptable for the times we live in. People earn money by working. However, if robots start to do all the work for us, particularly the jobs which have a big chance for human error, then how will our modern day economy function? How would people gain money? Well, the answer is hard to find unless we change our current economic system.

Technologies such as self-driving cars eliminate the need for taxi or bus drivers. 3-dimensional printers eliminate the need for craftsmen. Robots eliminate the need for minimum wage workers. All of these jobs become obsolete. And yes, some may argue that some people need to be able to make the robots or the self-driving cars or the 3-d printers, and its a valid point. But that further punishes those who decided not to get a college education. Also it is more than likely that one day “the machine” will be programmed to make those as well.

I’m not trying to halt advancement in technology. I just want the world to be prepared for when society becomes more reliant on robots and the like. Entire recreations of economic systems should not be an activity to be put off for another day. At the rate technology is improving, we as a society need to construct a plan for the future generations to live under.

So what plans do I have in mind? Well the simple answer is that I don’t have one. Maybe it is a sort of stock system where you purchase a share in a robot and whatever money it makes goes into share-holders pockets. However that leads to a rich get richer system and how would these robots get, “hired,” and “fired”? Maybe we have a communistic society where everybody just gets a certain amount of money every week or so to pay for goods. But then the standard of living would be affected and that would maybe lead to levels of uncontrollable inflation.

I believe the only way to make this futuristic society run is to completely eviscerate the idea of money and economy. It sounds crazy, but what else can be done? To be fair, machines would probably be able to create food and other necessities infinitely, or at least seem to. With modern technology the way it is, possibilities for the future are beyond the scope of all our imaginations. I mean, who ever thought self-driving cars would be possible. Sure, there are a few issues, but they will eventually be on all roads. The fact is that we don’t know how far we can take technology.

The possibilities are endless, but the impending future is near and the systems we currently have in place are soon to become ineffective. If we as a society want to see how far technology can go, we need to create a plan to keep society and the economy in a stable state. Without a new plan, the future may never become what we are capable of making it.

My name is Kevin and I am currently attending Cleveland State University as an Information Systems major with a passion for creative writing. I enjoy playing video games like League of Legends and NBA 2K to name a few. I also love to listen to music, like most people do. I mostly listen to indie music, however I’d like to believe I have a diverse list of songs that I listen to regularly ( I will link my Spotify at the end of the post if you are interested in what I listen to ). I follow sports such as the NBA and NFL, as well as a bit of pro tennis. Finally, I enjoy writing poetry, which at first was a rarity to see on the blog, but is now quite proudly the opposite.

I aspire to be a writer of either fiction or poetry. I am currently nine chapters into my dystopian noir novel. I have also considered creating a collection of my poems, but, as of now, I am keeping them free to share to anybody who has the internet and wants to read, for whom I am forever grateful for.